Dil & the Bear

Dil & the Bear is a cute little cafe and patisserie on Front Street, Tynemouth.

If you live up here, you’ve no doubt already heard about Dil & the Bear. I’ve been trying to eat here for AGES, it’s always been packed when we’ve tried to go. I expected it to be the same situation the sunny Sunday we decided to pop our heads in to see if we could nab a table… I had in my mind that we would end up at Allard’s Lounge, our 2nd choice. Much to my surprise, there were loads of tables available, even the staff seemed surprised when I mentioned how much quieter it was than I expected.

Is it too early in the post to stick in a photo of cake? Clicked this on my way up to order our food. Priorities.

It was mid morning so I knew I wanted to order from the breakfast menu. This will surprise no-one, breakfast is my favourite meal to eat out! I ordered the full English breakfast and my partner in brunching went for a breakfast sarnie, with sausage and egg. Drinks wise, I fancied coffee (also not a surprise) so opted for the cappuccino and Ankush had an orange juice. We paid £17 something for this.

Our drinks arrived pretty quickly, in fact I was taking a few pics and by the time I went back to the table, my cappuccino was ready and waiting. I should have hurried up a bit because it was edging towards warm vs. hot! My own fault.

Look how cute this place is though…

When the food arrived, I immediately felt a tiny (like, teeny tiny) bit guilty at the sight of white toast. It’s been ages since I’ve eaten white bread… not gonna lie, I was looking forward to it. Ankush was a bit shocked by the amount of sausages in the ciabatta. Luckily, we were hungry so cracked on and barely spoke to each other while we we got stuck in.

In the full English breakfast you get 2 sausages, 2 rashers of bacon, black pudding, an egg (I chose fried), 1 tomato, white toast, homemade baked beans (using black eyed beans). Everything was cooked to perfection, the sausages were ever so slightly charred, which I like and the bacon was crispy but not hard. I appreciated that the egg had been flipped, the yolk was perfectly runny. When I make my own, I like the underneath to be slightly crispy but that’s just personal preference. The homemade beans were tasty but (again personal preference), I am just a huge fan of the haricot bean (vs. the black eyed bean). Ankush made the most of this because he had them instead.

Ankush’s sarnie looks delightful and he really enjoyed it. One thing I didn’t get… he didn’t put ketchup on this sarnie (I’m still not over it).

Whilst we were eating, the place had started to get a lot busier. A family next to us had ordered tea and scones. The pot of tea came with a really cute tea cosy, I did consider asking to take a photo but then remembered I am British and would never interrupt someone drinking tea and eating a scone! The scones looked amazing, but we were far too full to consider eating anything else.

We loved our visit to Dil & the Bear, it definitely met my expectations. It’s a fab little place to spend an hour or two, the food was delicious and portions were beyond generous. The service was quick and staff were friendly and helpful. The weather was great, so the 4 or 5 tables under the outdoor canopy were occupied the whole time we were there. It’s such a good spot to stop and sit in the sunshine.

Have you been to Dil & the Bear? What do you recommend from the menu? I need to get back pronto for a scone/slice of cake and a pot of tea with a cute tea cosy on it!